family

“She is clothed in strength & dignity & she laughs without fear of the future.” – Proverbs 31:25

This verse has always sounded lovely to me when I was growing up and in college, but it wasn’t until I had my own kiddos that it really spoke to me. It seems when you are put in charge of the care and feeding of tiny humans, fear of the future just settles in – it hunkers down and lurks in the back of your mind. There are always worries about making sure we do everything perfectly as parents. Laughing at fear of the future was a completely foreign concept to me.

Our family was a bit more on the “crunchy granola” side of things with co-sleeping, breastfeeding, baby wearing, homemade baby food & cloth diapers… We did what “felt right” for our kiddos. But oh man were there nay-sayers along the way & they shook me to my core! I questioned our decisions regularly. It seems that when you are raising tiny humans everyone and their brother has an opinion on the best way to do it to be sure your kids turn out to be productive members of society.

Now that my boys are 13 and 16 (seriously, when did that happen?), I can look back on all of the minute decisions and see that whatever we had chosen, our boys would’ve turned out just fine. I am not kidding you. As long as your kids are loved, fed and safe…really the rest is just details. So if you’re just starting out on your mama journey, please know that all will be just fine. Raising little people is stressful and exhausting and harrowing – our oldest had colic for four straight months of nightly crying (both him and me) & our youngest didn’t sleep through the night until he was 7. But had I known I could have done it all without fear of the future, it would have made my new mama life so much easier.

So I’m giving you permission. Permission to do what works for YOUR family. What works for your kid. What works this time, might not work with the next one – and that’s okay! Seriously. Roll with it. You, my dear, are clothed in strength and dignity. So whether you are a working mom or a stay-at-home mom, whether you breastfeed or bottle feed, whether you cloth diaper or regular diaper, whether you homeschool, private school or public school…they will turn out just fine. Just love them. Love them with all your heart. Give them your time. Give them grace. Then head on into tomorrow and laugh without fear of the future. You’ve totally got this, mama!

So click on the button above to DOWNLOAD your free printable to remind you that you are AWESOME and you’re gonna rock it, mama! ♥ To fit an 8×10 frame, simply trim 1/2″ off of either side and 1″ off of top and bottom. Voila! A perfect little printable for her nursery or your refrigerator!

I have two boys. They are so old now. I can’t believe how quickly they’ve grown. 12 and 16 is far too old for this mama. When did this happen? When they were little, their imaginations soared. Just like Peter Pan and Wendy through the night sky. They were gleeful and giggly and silly and wonderful! Now that they are older they are just as imaginative. Far more creative and brilliant than I ever imagined they could be. The things their minds dream up are crazy amazing and wonderful and insane. They make this mama proud. It’s amazing how it’s hard to watch them grow up, but it’s so wonderful to see the people they have become. They bring a joy to my heart that I will never be able to explain. I’m such a goof – I’m tearing up a bit thinking about it!

My husband and I always joke that before kids we never lost our temper, yelled, worried or cried nearly as much as we do now. However, we also never laughed as hysterically, dreamed as big or imagined as much as since our boys joined our family. My mama hope and wish is that they never lose that creative and imaginative outlook on life. Enjoy, my sweet not-so-little boys. Know that this mama is right there behind you, cheering you on as you soar through the night – to the second start to the right and straight on ’til morning.

This little free printable is set up to print neatly on a regular 8 1/2″ x 11″ piece of letter size paper. The file is set to print at a very detailed 300 dpi (so it’s nice and crisp) – but it makes it a bit of a big file, so download it & walk away to get a cup of tea while it finishes popping up on your computer.

It is a PDF file, so you’ll need a PDF reader (like adobe PDF) – they’re available free online. Simply print, cut off 1/2″ off the top & bottom and 1/4″ off of each size. Voila – a great 8″x10″ print for your kiddo’s wall! Just click on the image above to download your PDF. If you have any troubles, give me a holler. ♥

January means that winter is in full swing, and winter brings with it some bad weather & right now there’s a massive blizzard in parts of the country! Kids may love to play outside in the snow or go puddle jumping in the rain, but sooner or later you’ll be faced with bad weather that keeps kids inside for most of the day. Puzzles and cartoons will only get you so far; eventually kids need something active and exciting to get out some of their abundant energy. Keep these game ideas up your sleeve to avoid getting pent up with bored children.

Cardboard castle – this was one of my boys’ favorites when they were little!

What’s even better than a fort made out of pillows and blankets? A castle made out of cardboard boxes. Save any boxes you have leftover from Christmas or from other deliveries; the bigger the better. We found our best boxes at the appliance store. We let them know what we were doing & they saved them for us! Let your kids arrange these boxes into a castle of their own design. You can help by cutting doorways between the boxes, and kids can get creative by decorating the outside with whatever arts and crafts supplies you have on hand.

I love the two tutorials (links below). Using cardboard in a hallway is genius! The second tutorial is dear to my heart. I helped build and grew up in a geodesic dome when I was little. So I adore that there are instructions to make a cardboard version. LOOOVE it, and your kids will, too!

Freeze Dancing

This is like musical chairs without the chairs. Pick out one of your kids’ (or your) favorite songs, play it, and dance like no one’s watching. We put on songs of the composers we’re studying. Before we start dancing, we all have to yell which composer it is.

Let out your silly side and encourage your kids to show off their goofiest dance moves. Then pause the music: everyone has to freeze in whatever position they’re in. This game is sure to burn off some energy and to bring out some laughs. My boys are now 12 and 15, and they still love this game! This is a fun way to switch off nasty attitudes, too. ♥ Seriously look at those sweet faces! My kids are awesome, and crazy, and adorable!

Do your kids have toy cars or toy animals they love to move around? Let them design their very own road system. Kids can use painter’s tape or masking tape to plot out roads all around the house: on the floor, onto the furniture, and maybe even on you. Especially if you have older children, they might really enjoy planning out and designing a complicated road system complete with city landmarks along the way. Because it’s painter’s or masking tape, it’s easy to clean up, so they can make roads as long as they want. Then they can have fun racing their toys all along the roads.

Pillow Sumo Wrestling

Oh my goodness, look at our youngest’s toes!!! He’s seriously into this. Do you have some roughhousing lovers? Try pillow sumo wrestling to let them get it out of their system without getting hurt. Equip your kids with some adult-sized t-shirts, and stuff them with pillows. You may want to place some extra pillows around the “wrestling” area (don’t do it anywhere they can land on something hard or sharp). Then let your kids bounce around to their hearts’ content. You’ll probably want to supervise this one carefully to make sure no one gets hurt, but as long as no one gets carried away, it can be definitely get the cold weather wiggles out! These are my boys – even as big kids, they like bouncing around with their brother!

So enjoy! Have some fun with your kids, no matter what their age…they’ll love being a little creative and a little crazy with you!

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Hello, I'm Julie, a wife, mother, and owner of Little Girl's Pearls. This is a place for all things sparkly, frilly, soft, fluffy, and adorable, and I hope you enjoy it. Take a look around - I'm so happy you're here.You can learn a bit more about me here.